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Robert Clayton Ames (March 6, 1934 – April 18, 1983) was an operations officer and Near East specialist for the Central Intelligence Agency. He was killed in the 1983 United States embassy bombing in Beirut.

Early life

Raised in Philadelphia, the son of a steelworker, Ames was a 1956 graduate of La Salle University. While at La Salle, he was a member of the La Salle basketball team which won the NCAA championship in 1954 and was runner-up in 1955.

Career

In 1956, he joined the US Army in signals intelligence and assigned to duty in Ethiopia. On visits to Cairo and Jerusalem, Ames became interested in the Middle East and learned Arabic. In 1960, he joined the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), specializing in the Middle East. Over his twenty three year CIA career, Ames was posted in Sana'a, South Yemen; Beirut, Lebanon; Tehran, Iran and Kuwait City, Kuwait.

According to Ames' biographer Kai Bird, Ames rose to become America's most influential intelligence officer in the Middle East due to his connections with Arab intelligence figures, including Palestinian militant Ali Hassan Salameh, though Ames was criticized by some within CIA for not officially recruiting Salameh as an agent. The backchannel with Yasir Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was politically risky, when the PLO was viewed as a terrorist organization in Washington.

He rose to become the CIA's chief analyst for the Middle East at CIA headquarters, regularly briefing President Ronald Reagan. He was involved in the development of Operation Eagle Claw, a failed rescue attempt during the Iran hostage crisis.

Death

Ames was killed on April 18, 1983, when a suicide bomber detonated a bomb at the United States embassy in Beirut. A total of 63 people were killed in the explosion, including Ames, the CIA Lebanon station chief and his deputy, as well as six other CIA officers and eight other Americans. CIA Director William Casey described the loss of Ames as "the closest thing to an irreplaceable man".

US President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy Reagan, attended the ceremony marking the arrival of the victims’ coffins at Andrews Air Force Base. A memorial service for them, held at Washington National Cathedral, was attended by three thousand people. Ames is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

After his death, Ames was selected as one of CIA's first Trailblazers.

Personal life

He and his wife, Yvonne, had six children. Only after his death did Ames' children learn he was a spy.

He is the uncle of former Major League Baseball pitcher Mark Gubicza.

References

1. ^ Garner, Dwight (2014-05-05). "A Life in the Shadows in the Cold War Mideast". New York Times. Archived from the original on 2014-05-15. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
2. "NCAA champ became CIA legend. Historic La Salle team produced unsung hero". philly.com. 2004-01-23. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved 2014-05-07.
3. Woodward, Bob (1987) Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA, 1981–87. Headline. ISBN 0-7472-3168-0. pp. 288, 289.
4. Hirst, David (2010) Beware of Small States: Lebanon, Battleground of the Middle East. Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-23741-8 p. 192
5. Norton, Augustus (June 11, 2014). "The Irreplaceable Spy". Lobe Log. Retrieved June 29, 2019.
6. ^ "Trump's Vainglorious Affront to the C.I.A." The New Yorker. Retrieved 23 January 2017.
7. "Never Forgotten: The Deadliest Day in CIA History". Central Intelligence Agency. 2023-04-18. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
8. Morales, Tatiana (April 16, 2003). "Remembering CIA's Bob Ames". www.cbsnews.com. Archived from the original on September 27, 2022. Retrieved September 27, 2022.
9. "38 years ago today, we lost a true hero. My uncle Robert Ames, a member of the NCAA basketball championship team at La Salle University in 54' and a decorated CIA operative died in the bombing at the United States embassy in Beirut". www.twitter.com. April 18, 2021. Archived from the original on April 18, 2021. Retrieved September 27, 2022.

Further reading

• Bird, Kai. The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames. New York: Crown Publishing, 2014. ISBN 0307889750. OCLC 879649000.

External links

• Ames' gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery via ANC Explorer

• 1934 births
• 1983 deaths
• American men's basketball players
• American people murdered abroad
• American terrorism victims
• Assassinated American diplomats
• Basketball players from Philadelphia
• Burials at Arlington National Cemetery
• Deaths by car bomb in Lebanon
• La Salle Explorers men's basketball players
• Mass murder victims
• Assassinated CIA agents
• People murdered in Lebanon
• 20th-century American sportsmen